Litespeed F3: Satrio Hermanto makes debut with Litespeed F3

Sunday, 09 August 2009 09:53

25 year old Adil ‘Satrio’ Hermanto will make his British F3 debut this coming weekend at Silverstone, driving in National Class with Litespeed F3. The A1GP driver for Team Indonesia is also confirmed for the 9th round of the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series in the Algarve on 13th September.

‘We are delighted that Satrio will be racing with us for the next couple of weekends,’ said Steve Kenchington, Director of Engineering, Litespeed F3. ‘He complements the international aspect of our driver line-up: from South America - Victor Corrêa; Europe – Jay Bridger and now Satrio from the Far East.

‘Throughout his career Satrio has shown natural skill, track awareness and technical understanding. On behalf of everyone at Litespeed I would like to welcome him to the team, to an exciting couple of weeks and a possible long term collaboration.’

Hermanto, the first Indonesian driver in British F3, has been racing since he was 11 years old. His career started when he competed in the Junior Class of the Indonesian National Karting Championship in which he not only became the youngest driver, but the overall champion in his debut year.

From there he progressed to the Senior Class of National Karting and was crowned ‘Overall Champion’ in 1997. A few years honing his technical skills and Satrio competed in the 2004 World Championship Karting Series in Lanzarote. The following years were significant, not least because of the young driver being recognised as the National Class Formula Asia Champion in 1999.

Whilst continuing to further his racing and technical education, Satrio was crowned the 2006 Promotional Class F3 Asia Champion and simultaneously achieved a justifiable 3rd place position in the 2007 Formula Renault V6 Asia Championship.

Satrio is extremely proud of his roots, so when he was asked to drive in the 2007-2008 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, there was no hesitation – ‘It’s not only an honour to drive for my country, but considering the talent out there, it is also a privilege’ he said.

Hermanto continues to support A1GP, but with regard to British F3 he said, ‘This is a new avenue for me and one that I am not only excited about but one that I relish. British F3 has carved out the careers for Ayrton Senna & Mika Hakkinen, both of whom I respect and admire. All I need to do now is follow their success.’